Audio: Readings from Beauty as a State of Being

I read the lastsix sections from "Beauty as a State of Being." These readings can be used as guided meditations.

The Fragrance of God

1. The Fragrance of God

Imagine you are walking along a street in town, or along a path through field or forest far from the ways of women and men, and you catch a scent in the air; there is a fragrance which is unexpected but strong, sweet, and delicious, (it could be lilac, honeysuckle or beach plum in bloom), and you wish to discover the scent, to find its source in the flower.

You follow in the direction of the fragrance as it becomes stronger, sweeter, more delicious still, searching through the interwoven greenery, sensing from the deepening scent yourself getting close.

Finally you find the flower, (many bees may be humming there), you lift up a sprig and inhale deeply; the scent is sweet, intoxicating; your head swoons slightly with delight.

The world is the Fragrance of God. The world wafts into space from its source in the divine.

Trusting the guidance that leads you, trace the fragrance of the world to its source; go in the direction where reality grows stronger, allowing yourself to become intoxicated as you go, as you inhale more of the deepening fragrance of reality, knowing that the fragrance always expresses the divine character of the source from which it emanates.﻿﻿

The Hearth

2. The Hearth

Imagine the seasons have turned; it is cold and you are outside walking down lanes lined with pine covered in snow, each dusted tree like a flower that waits for winter to bloom in this way.

Or you have been outside playing the winter games: sledding with children down the hill, skating on the frozen pond, skiing on mountains. Eventually you are chilled and the time to go indoors has come.

You enter the lodge and sense warmth emanating from somewhere in the great room; you sense a fire in the hearth somewhere. Instinctively, spontaneously, without thought, you move toward the warmth, toward the hearth, the lighted place aflame at the center of the dwelling. You find the hearth and stand there, letting the warmth penetrate to your bones, dispelling the cold.

Now, trusting the guidance that leads you, look inside your body for the place where warmth originates. Find the hearth within the dwelling of your Being. Instinctively, spontaneously, without thought, move in the direction of warmth, peace, comfort, fullness, and quietude. Find the quiet at your core and rest there, relinquishing everything superfluous and troublesome. Rest in your quiet, your peace, your beauty, recognizing this beauty as your own Heart; your very, inviolable nature.﻿﻿

Source

3. Source

﻿The source of the world saturates its substance. ﻿

The substance of the world reveals the nature of its source. ﻿

As fragrance reveals the nature of the flower,﻿

and warmth the nature of the fire,﻿

the unspeakable beauty of the natural world,﻿

bespeaks the source from which it springs.

﻿And what does beauty says of her source,﻿

what does she say of the One who sent her? ﻿

Love; beauty says love.﻿

Love, manifest, arises as beauty.﻿

But beauty also says intelligence. Like any grand composition, the universe is a magnificent integration of form and content, engineering and aesthetics. There is intellectual beauty in mathematics, physics, science, the way things work; and aesthetic beauty in the appearance of trees and mountains, the moon and stars. The universe presents as whole cloth and all fields of knowledge - the disciplines that make up departments in universities - are individual threads separated out from the seamless tapestry, the perfectly-realized, cosmic masterwork.﻿

Sacred Ground

4. Sacred Ground﻿

But her body was invaded by cancer. Cancer filled her womb which was removed to save her life. The sickness struck too close to her core and she was frightened.﻿

Where is sacred ground when the fortress has been breached?﻿

Where is sacred ground when invaders take the hallowed ground?﻿

Where is sacred ground when the bunker has been reached,

when the coffers have been plundered,﻿

and the food stores have been found?﻿

Though the surgery was successful, she was not at peace. She had been invaded by cancer once, deeply, frighteningly, and began to doubt that she would ever again feel safe.﻿

Where is sacred ground when the body has been pierced?﻿

Where is sacred ground when offspring have been razed?﻿

Where is sacred ground when the temple is defiled,﻿

and homes are set ablaze?﻿

Where is sacred ground when the cemetery has been desecrated?﻿

Where is sacred ground when the elders have been humiliated?﻿

﻿When the sky is filled with smoke,﻿

and the sunlight turned to haze,﻿

and the heavens have surrendered;﻿

where is sacred ground?﻿

Where can no one reach,﻿

where can no sword pierce,﻿

what can never fail,﻿

what can no indignity defile,﻿

what can never die?﻿

There is sacred ground.﻿

Belonging

5. Belonging

In high school I hung out with the popular kids but I never really felt like I fit in or belonged, she said.

Isn’t that the way it is? We move from one environment to another, from one social group to another, from one culture to another. And while we may fit in reasonably well, in some groups more than in others, even within our own families, isn’t it true that the perfect fit, the perfect sense of belonging, the sense of being perfectly at home is only found within ourselves?

Relax. You belong to yourself. You fit perfectly, and have always fit perfectly, like a glove, within yourself. Enjoy the peace of being at home. And if you carry this sense of being at-home-within-yourself wherever you go, like a turtle its shell, you will find you fit perfectly always and with everything.﻿﻿